Skitsch is her name. During the day she works as a professional inbetweener for Imagin, a Japanese animation studio in Korea. But outside of work she is an artist on the loose who is busy creating her own stuff. 
Here are some characters she's designed and put on some stickers. Along with many other young artists, she puts stuff like this on T-shirts and other goods that she sells at the Hongdae artist's market during warm seasons. She also has a blog/shop, D-Gecko, where you can see more of her stuff. And now, for the interview:
Midodok: So, what do you feel about your job and animation in Korea?
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Skitsch: I might disappoint you. I don't like my job. Sometimes I even feel shame. Yes, we draw, but we don't draw for our story and people here. Especially those who have worked as an animator for a long time, they think they've done something great, but most of them just have SKILLS. Not a story, not a style, nothing. They're just workers.
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One of my old co-worker was suffering. He was a talented storyteller and he had skills but he couldn't do what he really wanted because nobody was interested (I mean nobody invested). Animation in Korea? I don't know, right now, I can't see any future.
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Midodok: Why do you think Korean animation has little hope?
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Skitsch: We became a hand, not a head. Look at me, I've been working as an animator for 7 years but I just know a small part of animation. We're doing this to make money, we're following rules they (in my case, Japanese) made, not ours...
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Skitsch: I have a dream with my drawing, but I don't have a dream as an animator.
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Midodok: How so?
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Skitsch: Hmm. . . Someday, I wanna have my own street brand.
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Midodok: I see! Cool! Why a street brand and not animation?
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Skitsch: I don't know. . . Maybe I realized I can't make an animation all by myself.
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Midodok: Anything else you'd like to add?
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Skitsch: Nah.
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Midodok: Thank you for taking the time for this interview!
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Skitsch: Okay, no, you're welcome.
I hope that creativity and uniqueness like Skitsch's can be encouraged and she can find a place to use it. It would be a shame if artists like Skitsch do indeed just "become a hand" and can't put their talent to use. By the way, I thought I'd share her unique wrist piercing. If you look closely, you can sort of see it. As always, you can leave comments for Skitsch and I'll make sure she sees them.
3 comments:
That's kind of sad, but you guys have everything to a cope with a quick change if someone with enough power decides to act on it. You already have an army of animators to work on a real korean project whenever it comes. In some other countries there are not enough animators to do anything, not even to compete with you just 'being hand' for foreign productions.
Maybe a safer bet for producers would be to do something based on an already sucessful comic series. I have no idea of how korean comics are like, but you probably have some succesful titles, right?
Good points, Gabriel. Sometimes comics don't get the support they deserve here either. I recall one manhwa artist was commissioned by a U.S. company to complete her series for them since she couldn't afford to finish it here and it was popular abroad. I'll investigate Korean comics more and post about that in the future. The real inspiration for upcoming animations is online gaming, though, not comics.
Also, a lot of animation companies have collapsed by creating their own stuff. So people are scared to make the investment in something risky. Companies that last are the ones who do work for other countries. It's safer being a "hand" than a "head" I guess.
gabriel-yea,we have some succesful comic titles,some people tried to make it to an animation,but strangely,they failed.
you mentioned 'army of animators'oh.yeah.i appreciate the expression!!that's right.we have everything,but the audieince.
(or chance to show them what we've done)
midodok-sorry i posted late and
you really surprise me.you know a lot about us,and actually,i think you understand some issues very well.want to talk about that again.
(and of course,correct me if i used uncorrect grammar)
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